Good news: plan to gerrymander constituency borders for Tories is scrapped
Boris Johnson’s government has given up a plan to cut the number of MPs in the House of Commons.
The Tories have been trying to reduce the number of MPs from 650 to 600 since David Cameron slithered into Downing Street in 2010.
The aim was to change constituency borders in order to deliver Conservative-voting majorities to most UK Parliamentary seats for the foreseeable future.
That plan was hatched when the Conservatives were unable to achieve a majority by themselves; Cameron’s first ministry was a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats, headed by Nick Clegg (who?).
But now, with the help of the Brexit-related division Cameron created in his second ministry, Boris Johnson has a huge majority of Tory MPs supporting him.
Ironically, he is saying the Brexit-related workload has pushed constituency reorganisation off the agenda.
Notice that the threat is still there – the Tories are still planning to create constituencies with near-equal numbers of voters, and you can bet they’ll rig it so the majority of voters in the majority of constituencies are theirs.
Like the SNP’s David Linden, This Site welcomes the government’s “screeching U-turn”.
And I agree with Darren Hughes of the Electoral Reform Society who said: “The proposals always seemed more like an executive power grab than a genuine move to improve the function of the Commons, so this is a small but welcome victory for backbenchers and voters.”
Source: Plan to cut the number of MPs axed over ‘Brexit workload’ – BBC News
Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Here are four ways to be sure you’re among the first to know what’s going on.
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the left margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical
3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
The Livingstone Presumption is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
The anti – Corbyn propaganda machine worked so well at the last couple of elections they probably think there’s no need to gerrymander the constituencies.